Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • Strategic autonomy
    • War in Ukraine
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter

Monitoring of workers’ personal data via entrance control systems

Selen Uncular 7th December 2021

Preventing 1984-style monitoring of workers requires a rebalancing of workplace power, based on fair legal regulation and human dignity.

entrance-control systems,monitoring of workers,biometric
Biometric entrance-control systems are particularly problematic (sunu c / shutterstock.com)

The monitoring of job applicants and workers, inside and outside the workplace—variously by computers, mobiles, artificial intelligence, video cameras and wearables, besides geolocation and identification methods—has become so much more common with the pandemic as to now constitute a regular part of working life. With the digital transformation, these practices lead to the processing of current, prospective and former workers’ personal data in a much less costly, but more intrusive, way than before.

In this context, the processing of personal data can be defined as any operation—collection, use, recording, erasure and storage—applied to any kind of information related to the applicant and worker. Yet it is in the employment relationship that the right to the protection of personal data is constantly violated. An equitable balance thus needs to be struck in the era of digitalisation, between the applicant’s and the worker’s rights to privacy and protection of their personal data and the employer’s economic and personal interests.

Electronic and biometric control systems

Among the monitoring practices frequently involved, employers resort to electronic and biometric systems for control of entrance or access, to register the times, frequency and security of workers entering and leaving the workplace. These control systems identify and record the areas of the workplace visited by workers during the day and how long they have been there.

Electronic systems perform control via a personal identification number (PIN) or magnetic or chip card (smart card). Such systems are versatile and practical for the employer but workers also use such cards, for identification and access to printers, photocopiers and vending machines, as a payment tool in the cafeteria or to determine for themselves when they enter and leave the workplace and record their working times.


Our job is keeping you informed!


Subscribe to our free newsletter and stay up to date with the latest Social Europe content. We will never send you spam and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Sign up here

Biometric systems include methods for recognising or scanning the biometric data of workers, such as fingerprints, palms, face, voice, retina, DNA, footprints, odour, weight, skin and body shape. These characteristics are measured and identification ensured by comparison with pre-recorded information (a biometric sample or template). Biometric data comprise a special category of personal data, with the need for stricter protection.

Egregious interference

Whereas electronic entrance-control systems, located in the main entrance and sections or floors in the workplace, also process workers’ personal data, biometric systems interfere egregiously by processing biometric data in line with its recording, matching and storage. Contrary to the methods involving passwords, badges or cards, it is not possible to change or remove biological features which form the basis of biometric data. Hence the abuse of biometric data will have more serious and dangerous consequences for workers.

Especially in workplaces which require high security or in particular areas where highly confidential information is kept, control of entry and exit with smart cards may sometimes be insufficient. Biometric entrance-control systems should therefore be a last resort and limited to the entrances of such exceptional areas. In these cases, it is obligatory to act in accordance with the basic principles and rules of data-protection law.

Since personal data cannot as a rule be processed, the processing of workers’ data via electronic or biometric entrance-control systems should only be to the extent necessary for the performance of the employment contract. Even explicit consent from the worker, in the context of an employment relationship based on subordination, does not alone ensure compliance with the law. Within this scope, as long as there is a method which achieves the same purpose and interferes less with the personal data of the worker—in line with the principle of proportionality—use of biometric entrance-control systems will be unlawful.

Job applicants and workers must be informed in a clear and detailed manner before the processing of their data. This does not however mean that continuous or covert monitoring of the frequency and times of workers’ entrances and exits can ever be justified.

Regulation

The European Union General Data Protection Regulation does not directly regulate the monitoring of workers by electronic and biometric entrance-control systems, which depends on national regulations. In tracking the entrance to and exit from the workplace and in ensuring its safety, electronic control systems, in which limited and non-sensitive data belonging to workers are uploaded, will be more in compliance than biometric systems with legal instruments. These are the Council of Europe’s Recommendation CM/Rec (2015)5, on the processing of personal data in the context of employment, Opinion 2/2017 of the Article 29 Working Party and fundamental principles of data-protection law.

However, electronic systems must not be used to track the behaviour of workers during and outside working time. Also, the personal data of workers monitored through these systems must be processed in accordance with the unique characteristics of labour law and good faith.

All rights derived from data-protection law must be granted to applicants and workers as well, including the right to gain access, and object, to their processed data. Otherwise, monitoring carried out by an employer with electronic and biometric entrance-control systems will become null and void, and the personal data obtained will constitute unlawful evidence in any legal dispute.


We need your support


Social Europe is an independent publisher and we believe in freely available content. For this model to be sustainable, however, we depend on the solidarity of our readers. Become a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month and help us produce more articles, podcasts and videos. Thank you very much for your support!

Become a Social Europe Member

Above all, genuinely fair and effective protection of job applicants’ and workers’ personal data, against all types of monitoring abuse by employers, depends on raising awareness and changing mentalities. For this, social justice and human dignity provide the best compass.

entrance-control systems,monitoring of workers,biometric
Selen Uncular

Selen Uncular is an attorney at law and PhD candidate in labour law at Pompeu Fabra University, Spain. She is author of a book on the protection of workers’ personal data, İş İlişkisinde İşçinin Kişisel Verilerinin Korunması, and is interested in collective action, ecological sustainability and international labour law.

You are here: Home / Economy / Monitoring of workers’ personal data via entrance control systems

Most Popular Posts

European civil war,iron curtain,NATO,Ukraine,Gorbachev The new European civil warGuido Montani
Visentini,ITUC,Qatar,Fight Impunity,50,000 Visentini, ‘Fight Impunity’, the ITUC and QatarFrank Hoffer
Russian soldiers' mothers,war,Ukraine The Ukraine war and Russian soldiers’ mothersJennifer Mathers and Natasha Danilova
IGU,documents,International Gas Union,lobby,lobbying,sustainable finance taxonomy,green gas,EU,COP ‘Gaslighting’ Europe on fossil fuelsFaye Holder
Schengen,Fortress Europe,Romania,Bulgaria Romania and Bulgaria stuck in EU’s second tierMagdalena Ulceluse

Most Recent Posts

HMPs,CMR,hazardous medicinal products,carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic,health workers Protecting health workers from hazardous productsIan Lindsley, Tony Musu and Adam Rogalewski
geopolitical,Europe Options for Europe’s ‘geopolitical’ futureJon Bloomfield
democracy,democratic Reviving democracy in a fragmented EuropeSusanne Wixforth and Kaoutar Haddouti
EU social agenda,social investment,social protection EU social agenda beyond 2024—no time to wasteFrank Vandenbroucke
pension reform,Germany,Lindner Pension reform in Germany—a market solution?Fabian Mushövel and Nicholas Barr

Other Social Europe Publications

front cover scaled Towards a social-democratic century?
Cover e1655225066994 National recovery and resilience plans
Untitled design The transatlantic relationship
Women Corona e1631700896969 500 Women and the coronavirus crisis
sere12 1 RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?

ETUI advertisement

Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2022

Since 2000, the annual Bilan social volume has been analysing the state of play of social policy in the European Union during the preceding year, the better to forecast developments in the new one. Co-produced by the European Social Observatory (OSE) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), the new edition is no exception. In the context of multiple crises, the authors find that social policies gained in ambition in 2022. At the same time, the new EU economic framework, expected for 2023, should be made compatible with achieving the EU’s social and ‘green’ objectives. Finally, they raise the question whether the EU Social Imbalances Procedure and Open Strategic Autonomy paradigm could provide windows of opportunity to sustain the EU’s social ambition in the long run.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Eurofound webinar: Making telework work for everyone

Since 2020 more European workers and managers have enjoyed greater flexibility and autonomy in work and are reporting their preference for hybrid working. Also driven by technological developments and structural changes in employment, organisations are now integrating telework more permanently into their workplace.

To reflect on these shifts, on 6 December Eurofound researchers Oscar Vargas and John Hurley explored the challenges and opportunities of the surge in telework, as well as the overall growth of telework and teleworkable jobs in the EU and what this means for workers, managers, companies and policymakers.


WATCH THE WEBINAR HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Discover the new FEPS Progressive Yearbook and what 2023 has in store for us!

The Progressive Yearbook focuses on transversal European issues that have left a mark on 2022, delivering insightful future-oriented analysis for the new year. It counts on renowned authors' contributions, including academics, politicians and analysts. This fourth edition is published in a time of war and, therefore, it mostly looks at the conflict itself, the actors involved and the implications for Europe.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

The macroeconomic effects of re-applying the EU fiscal rules

Against the background of the European Commission's reform plans for the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), this policy brief uses the macroeconometric multi-country model NiGEM to simulate the macroeconomic implications of the most relevant reform options from 2024 onwards. Next to a return to the existing and unreformed rules, the most prominent options include an expenditure rule linked to a debt anchor.

Our results for the euro area and its four biggest economies—France, Italy, Germany and Spain—indicate that returning to the rules of the SGP would lead to severe cuts in public spending, particularly if the SGP rules were interpreted as in the past. A more flexible interpretation would only somewhat ease the fiscal-adjustment burden. An expenditure rule along the lines of the European Fiscal Board would, however, not necessarily alleviate that burden in and of itself.

Our simulations show great care must be taken to specify the expenditure rule, such that fiscal consolidation is achieved in a growth-friendly way. Raising the debt ceiling to 90 per cent of gross domestic product and applying less demanding fiscal adjustments, as proposed by the IMK, would go a long way.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ILO advertisement

Global Wage Report 2022-23: The impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power

The International Labour Organization's Global Wage Report is a key reference on wages and wage inequality for the academic community and policy-makers around the world.

This eighth edition of the report, The Impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power, examines the evolution of real wages, giving a unique picture of wage trends globally and by region. The report includes evidence on how wages have evolved through the COVID-19 crisis as well as how the current inflationary context is biting into real wage growth in most regions of the world. The report shows that for the first time in the 21st century real wage growth has fallen to negative values while, at the same time, the gap between real productivity growth and real wage growth continues to widen.

The report analysis the evolution of the real total wage bill from 2019 to 2022 to show how its different components—employment, nominal wages and inflation—have changed during the COVID-19 crisis and, more recently, during the cost-of-living crisis. The decomposition of the total wage bill, and its evolution, is shown for all wage employees and distinguishes between women and men. The report also looks at changes in wage inequality and the gender pay gap to reveal how COVID-19 may have contributed to increasing income inequality in different regions of the world. Together, the empirical evidence in the report becomes the backbone of a policy discussion that could play a key role in a human-centred recovery from the different ongoing crises.


DOWNLOAD HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us

RSS Feed

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube